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Not So Hot
Calvin Coolidge’s Katrina. The left goes begging. Plus, Sinatra greatest hits and much more.
(Page 5 of 7)
The reason for this difference is new Israeli smart bomb technology which allows Israel to deliver a 100-pound bomb with the destructive effect of a 1,000-pound bomb and to hit specific targets with extreme accuracy.
The result is that Hamas and its supporters are now desperate to obtain a cease-fire that will enable them to declare another “victory” because of their survival. This time, however, Israel does not wish or need a cease-fire: it does not need to escape from a costly and not really successful ground military operation, it needs to continue until its surge is successful.
As with the U.S. surge in Iraq, those opposed to Israeli operations are claiming it can never succeed and its failure is inevitable, but, as with the US surge, if we wish the hostilities to end on at least a semi-permanent basis, we must support the current Israeli surge. It has never been a problem to end Israeli attacks responding to Hamas violence. But Hamas has never actually stopped its missile attacks and has always used any cease-fire to declare “victory” and to improve its missile capabilities.
We should support this Israeli “surge” and not award Hamas
another false “victory” by its survival. Nor should we treat
Israeli responses to ongoing Hamas provocations and violence
directed solely against Israeli civilians as equivalent to those
provocations and violence.
— Richard Udell
GAME CHANGERS
Re: Paul Beston’s The
Usual Suspects:
FIND THE EXIT, “24/7”
Every few years we slip and fall
For new phrases. Our language, after all,
Loves idiom and slides with ease
Into what’s new and catchy, “but, please!”.
Must we start every sentence with “I mean”?
It’s time for “24/7” to leave the scene.
Remember saying “how nice a day”
Without the needless “of a” getting in the way?
“Yeah, right?” exists in modern repartee.
What it means is some kind of mystery.
“A thrill down my leg” can’t be thought of as wit.
“At the end of the day” will hang around for a bit.
I suppose “like” and “ex-cetera” are here to stay,
And “ya know” for stumblers won’t go away.
The most amazing people are caught in their sway,
(Even news anchors have been known to stray).
Listing this year’s preferences can be fun.
“With all due respect,” “betcha” you’ve got more than one!
— Mimi Evans Winship
COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
Re: Peter Ferrara’s
What Conservatives Must Now Do:
Very, very good article!
I am sending an e-mail that I sent to every important Republican that I could find the e-mail address for. I did it after the 2006 disaster.
An open letter to the R.N.C.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (21) | Leave a comment
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Alan Brooks| 1.6.09 @ 8:53PM
at least Coolidge wasnt a member of ANY chattering class.
Silence is not only golden-- it is platinum as well.
Jerry L. Wallace| 1.7.09 @ 11:19AM
Calvin Coolidge had three goals as president: first, reducing the great financial debt that had accumulate during the Great War; second, cutting tax rates and eliminating taxes on low wage earners; and three, maintaining tariff stability. He achieved all three of these goals. There were other goals, too, such as joining the World Court, national railroad reorganization, and reforming the Federal bureaucracy. However, Congressional opposition, particularly from the so-called radicals or western progressive in the Senate, blocked them to varying degrees….The depth of the depression of the 1930s was not due to the policies of the Coolidge Administration. Rather, it was the policies followed by his successor, Herbert Hoover, and the Federal Reserve Board that turned an ordinary economic slump into a disastrous worldwide depression. This situation was compounded later by Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal policies that extended the depression in the US long after most of the world had returned to prosperity….Calvin Coolidge was not a great president. He fought no great wars. He led no great social crusades. Essentially, he was XIXth Century in his political outlook. He thought that democratic government was best managed at the State and local level, rather than at the Federal, which, he saw, as having a very limited and specific charge. He believed that religious values were essential to the survival of our democracy and often made this point of this in his speeches. His philosophy of government in many ways was close to that of Grover Cleveland, who he much admired….As president, he set out his basic goals–and he achieved them. With this, the people were satisfied. When he left Washington for Northampton, MA, the country was more prosperous than it had ever been and peace smiled down upon this Republic. That is not such a bad record. Let me observe that the 1920's was the last decade when the America people were truly free to do their own thing without government interference and control….I might add also that Calvin Coolidge was our first radio president. He made skillful and pioneering use of the new media, which was even commented on favorably by The New York Times. Notably, he put in place the regulatory framework and basic policies that govern it to this day.
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